beauty pagent contest

[Karl Heiner]

have a beauty pagent contest event for this saturday.
indoor, theater setting, no rehearsal, no addional info about lighting, audio....
no outlet, setup between theater seats

help...what shoud i look out for? (camera xl1-s, 16x lens)

greetings

[Owen Dawe]

A tough call really with only one cam.

Try and get the best advantage point you can. Close enough to get an audio feed as you can from the sound desk. This may not be a great audio mix so try and do a camera mike record as well. Monitor on headphones.

The lighting is outside your controll. You have to run with what you've got. Set white balance on auto.

Vary your shots but keep in mind you need pretty well every shot you can get. Take plenty of cutaway shots of audience, decor, or anything you can use as a cover shot.

Plenty of battery power or mains feed. Enough tape plus some for the duration of the show.

Have fun.

[Steve House]

Surely the event organizers aren't going into the theatre sight unseen themselves, why do they expect you to? And no rehearsal? Do you mean they're not going to rehearse the pageant or they won't let you observe it? If your client wants you to produce proper video coverage, why aren't they being cooperative and putting you in touch with the stage lighting director, stage manager, audio director, etc, so you can at least get an idea of the situation you're going to be facing? Time for you to get tough communicating your requirements to be able to do a proper job for them<g>

[Karl Heiner]

hello steve/ owen,

great advice and questions.
have addressed my question/ concerns per email to the producer. they have a meeting this morning and come back with some answers.
will post the result.

i have been in that theater about 2 years ago, and the power question leis within the theater rental rules. also the no audio feed from them. (have been in a lot bay area theaters, this is the only one which is so restrictive)

the rehearsal issue does not suprisses me, i have 2 opera companies regulars, which never have rehearsals...

my concern is the power, which eliminates my field monitor. don't like the idea to hang on the viewfinder for hours. (my camera mounted lcd monitor needs power too!, bad buying choice on my part)

thanks

greetings

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Karl Heiner

hello steve/ owen,
...
the rehearsal issue does not suprisses me, i have 2 opera companies regulars, which never have rehearsals...

...

HUH? You mean they perform in public without ever playing/singing the music together, walking through the stage blocking, adjusting lighting, etc? I find that very hard to believe.

[Harold Schreiber]

Hi Karl,

I recently did a similar gig to what you are to do. It was a Variety Show in a large High School Theater. Got call the on Tue, went to check the Site on Wed, then to "Rehersal" on Thurs (it was mostly a figuring out who was going in what order and other simple stuff as all were volunteer performers and staffers), and did show on Fri. evening.

Could not use the house sound as they only had the singers and comedians mic'ed, not the stage or Band insturments, so had to use Cam mic. Most of the show was done in the dark and using Spot Lites for the performers. The spots were poorly controled and they kept changing colors. They had a "Rain Curtain" - like a shiny foil as the main back drop curtain.

I did use a 8" LCD monitor to watch, since Cam was 6' 8" in the air and I was using my extendable control arm and IR remote Mod to control Zooming as I sat in a theater seat. I ran Cam (TRV 950) in "Spot Light" mode, and "Indoor Light" for White Balance. Also kept "Steady Shot" on since I was Zoomed out much of the time, and did the Manual Focus thing.

I had to be at the back of theater, in the center and 3 rows off the back wall.

Show lasted 2.5 hrs. I was able to trim it to 2.25 hrs. and put it on one DVD.

In spite of poor sound options, poorer lighting, and a lack of quite knowing where any body was coming from, or going to, on the stage, (they went to total black-out between acts and three of the folks even went into the audience) it turned out rather well.

If power is a problem, suggest you set up a large Battery (Deep Cycle RV type) to act as a power source. I'm set up to run my Cam, an LCD moitor, and two VCR's for up to 13 hrs at the Horse Shows I do outside.

Go do it and enjoy the challenge.

Harold

[Owen Dawe]

A further point Karl. It may seem obvious to us, but many of our clients don't realise video is made up of sound and pictures. If we have no control over either lighting or audio we cannot be held responsible for the end result. Cover your butt and tell the client if visually and audibly the video looks and sounds a mess you can't be held responsible.

[Karl Heiner]

Originally Posted by Steve House

HUH? You mean they perform in public without ever playing/singing the music together, walking through the stage blocking, adjusting lighting, etc? I find that very hard to believe.

hello steve,

well, they do have their location where they practice, but there are no rehearsals in the theater. both companies rent the theaters, one stays for one season within the same theater, the other rents all over town.

what i do is, i sit in, and "watch" one performance to get an idea whats going on, if possible i have my camera with me.

so fare i have not seen any lighting/ sound rehearsals. both companies have very few stage props.

greetings

[Karl Heiner]

hello,

got my final info today.

will have power......good
no audio feed...bad..have to use on board mic
back of the house only .... small theater, only 350 seats, good, (but don't like the down angle
there is an rehearsal 2 hours prior to the event...good (audio/ lighting)
location between the seats
still don't know how long the event will last...bad
got my 2 hour prior to event access...good
no editing/ just copy of tape ...good
full day rate pay...good (at arrival)

@harold
sounds like my event...lol

@owen,
a promissed communication with the producer for today got canceld.
my contact could not tell me what they want to see on the tapes

i guess i just take it easy. let you guys know

thanks again for your advice

greetings

[Steve House]

WHAP! <hand slapping on forehead>

Not faulting you Karl, you gotta play the hand you are dealt, but it makes me wonder what ever happened to the idea that anything worth doing at all is worth doing right? I can't imagine such a CF'ed sounding event could possibly turn out anything more than an embarrasment to the organizers. Good look to you ... be sure to get the cheque in advance and if you have time, make sure it'll clear before you shoot! LOL

[Karl Heiner]

hello steve,

i would not post on a public internet board, if i could not take/ want all input...

over my years, specially the last 2 years, i am learning that it is not just me who has to learn, i'm learnig also that the public at large does not understand that videographing/ recording is more then having a tripot somewhere in the corner, and some guy shooting the event.
my eye opener is that video without the right audio/ lighting (and more) will not lead to any quality results.

but, thats why i am here on this board.

greetings

[Karl Heiner]

so here ist the "beginning of end" of the story.

after the event was over, we had a meeting with the produce in order to get paid, and exchange tapes. (stage entrance)
one beauty queen got pushed by security and fell, suddenly hell broke loose. i rescued my exquipment, and left.

so, no tape/ money exchange at this point. wow..have not seen things like that.

greetings

[Adam Bray]

Another reminder for me to not do non repeatable events.

[Owen Dawe]

Hi Karl,

Thanks for keeping us up to date. Too bad you didn't get footage of the 'bun fight'. Might have made interesting footage for the evening news or those wacky doco's of interesting strange events.

[Karl Heiner]

hello owen,

to be very honest...i was happy to get out of it, incl. my equipment.

greetings